Miku Miku Dance (MMD) was first released as a Vocaloid Movie Maker in Feburuary 24th, 2008 by the Japanese programmer Yu Higuchi.[1]
This software was originally made for his personal use, and never planned releasing because the end user license for Miku Hatsune prohibited using her character images in other softwares in those days. Crypton Future Media, the copyright holder of her, changed this license in that month, MMD could see the light.
The first tutorial video by Mr. Higuchi /w English Sub (Original videos on NND[2][3])
At the beginning, This software could use only one model at a time from several default character models and a simple background. By approximately 3 years of advancements and upgrades by Mr. Higuchi and the help of voluntary support softwares and many very agressive users, MMD had enhanced its features. Not only user-made materials such as custom character models, stages and accesories, but also physics engine, Kinnect interface, NVIDIA 3D Vision and multiple effects had been added to the software.
In May 27th, 2011, Mr Higuchi retired from further development with the release of ver7.39. As of January 2013, the latest versions are ver7.39(dot) released for bug-fixes in July 2011, and ver7.39×64 optimized for 64-bit OS in August 2012.
Accordingly, replacement softwares, Miku Miku Studio[4] and Miku Miku Moving[5], have continued being developed since late 2011.